Pay Attention

The Best Thing I Read This Week Is …

When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You appreciate it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You’re too this, or I’m too this.’ That judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.

I used to dream about this tree. The tree is in France and is called Ponthus’ Beech and the photograph was taken by Christophe Kiciak. You can read about the tree and Christophe’s journey to photograph it here.

This tree and the Ram Dass quote reminds me of a tree I used to spend a lot of time with when I was in university. I was really miserable and every morning before class I would sit on a bench made of an old tree trunk that sat next to a huge maple tree and think miserable thoughts and feel miserable feelings. One day after doing this for a while, I stopped being so self-absorbed and actually noticed the tree. It was just being a tree and completely accepted me being a whiny, miserable person.

Not only do trees remind you to appreciate yourself and other people the way they are, trees accept you the way you are.